Now Haryana IAS officer seeks old pension scheme for staff

A 2010 batch IAS officer, Singh tweeted on Wednesday, “All governments of our country must bring all MPs and MLAs in NPS (New Pension Scheme) introduced in… (2004) or convert all employees to OPS… An employee serves for 30-35 years & is given NPS while an MP n MLA even after serving 1 day after oath is eligible for proper pension.”

In a subsequent tweet, he added, “Moreover there should be a bar on MPs MLAs drawing both pensions simultaneously. There are ex MLAs drawing 2 lakh per month pension despite they were elected way back. They might have set up businesses & settled down. Fiscal deficit should be seen for all and not only for employees.” Prabhjot Singh’s Twitter account mentions “views expressed are personal”. A former scientist of ISRO, Singh is currently MD of National Health Mission Haryana.

The tweets came hours after Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) for state government employees appointed after January 1, 2004. Gehlot said the contributory pension announced under the National Pension Scheme for those joining after this date had led to insecurity among government employees. “We want them to feel secure so that they can contribute towards good governance,” he said.

The employee leaders in Haryana said the announcement by the Rajasthan CM is bound to put a pressure on the BJP-JJP government to take a similar decision as it is the main demand of the employee unions in the state. The demand is getting momentum because the employees recruited after 2004 will start retiring in coming years and won’t be able to get benefits of the Old Pension Scheme.

Explaining their preference for the Old Pension Scheme, an employee leader Vijender Dhariwal says: “After retirement, a government employee gets 50% of basic salary along with the facility of regular DA (dearness allowance) and medical allowance from the government. On the other hand, the New Pension Scheme is a contributory scheme of the employee and the employer (government or private organisation).
In the case of the government employees, there is a contribution of 10% of the employee’s basic salary and the DA while 14% of the employee’s salary and DA is contributed by the government for the pension scheme. This money is invested in the stock market where there is no guarantee of better returns.